The Tragedy of a Young Host - The Dark Side of Kabukicho in 2013

The Tragedy of a Young Host - The Dark Side of Kabukicho in 2013

In June 2013, a 25-year-old rookie host was found dead, beaten to death in the back of the head, in a miscellaneous building known as the "Suicide Building" in Kabukicho. The building had become known as the city's symbolic "place of death" due to a string of past incidents in which hosts and others in the adult entertainment industry took their lives. The case strongly impressed upon us the chain of despair that lurks behind the glamorous neon lights.

In the background is the harsh competition and debt structure peculiar to the host club industry: since the 2000s, the number of customers in Kabukicho has temporarily declined due to the crackdown by the cleanup operation, and the business environment of the establishments has become increasingly severe. Hosts are driven by "sales quotas" and "competition for nominations," and they try to hold on to prostitutes who pay tribute to their customers even if they have to borrow money. Newcomers and unsuccessful hosts were driven into a corner mentally and financially, and in the worst cases, there were no end of suicides.

The historical background reflects the unstable working environment and isolation of young people in Japanese society in the early 2010s. It was a time when the generation trailing the "ice age" of employment faced irregular employment and low wages, and an increasing number of young people were turning to "night jobs. While Kabukicho's host clubs offered the illusion of getting rich quick, in reality they were hotbeds of debt, overwork, and violent hierarchical relationships, as well as a place to wear out one's life.

In addition, although the city was apparently cleaner after the cleansing operation, the underground and radicalized sex industry spread behind the scenes, and incidents and suicides in places hidden from the public increased. The suicide building was symbolic of this, and in contrast to the glittering front street, it embodied the shadow of the city as an "exit of despair." This incident in 2013 highlighted the dark side of Kabukicho, the "exhaustion and death of youth," and was etched in the city's dark memory.